Projects

Covenant on Demographic Change

EuroHealthNet is a member of the Covenant on Demographic Change, which gathers European public authorities and stakeholders, at local, regional and national level who are committed to developing environments that support active and healthy ageing, enhance independent living and well-being of older persons, and create a society for all ages.

The Covenant was launched in January 2016 as a continuation and expansion on the goals of AFE-INNOVNET’s Thematic Framework. The launch of the Covenant was also a shift from an informal network to an international non-for-profit organization under Belgian law, and has expanded from 68 members to its current 153 members.

It considers the eight domains of the WHO age-friendly environments approach:

Housing

Social participation

Respect and social inclusion

Civic participation and employment

Communication and information

Community support and health services

Outdoor spaces and built environment

Transportation

The full members of the Covenant commit to developing an action plan related to one or more of these domains, supported by the expertise of Associate and Ordinary members, such as EuroHealthNet.

Healthy ageing is about "optimising opportunities for good health, so that older people can take an active part in society and enjoy an independent and high quality of life" (Swedish Institure of Public Health 2006 - A Challenge for Europe).

Ageing is not necessarily a burden, and it does not necessarily decrease a person's ability to contribute to society: older people can make valuable and important contributions to society, and enjoy a high quality of life. But this depends on treating ageing as an opportunity rather than a burden, and taking a so-called 'assets-based approach'.

Only by concentrating on what people can do, rather than what they cannot, can strategies and political decisions be taken which help create the right conditions to promote healthy behaviours amongst older people and provide the necessary opportunities for regular physical activity, healthy diets, fulfilling social relations, participation in meaningful activities and financial security.

By showcasing practical examples of health promotion interventions, identifying initiatives in the European Union, and making available key resources about healthy ageing, we hope that healthyageing.eu builds awareness of the steps required to make healthy ageing a reality.

EuroHealthNet also set up an internal technical working group with its members on healthy ageing aiming at gathering intelligence, exchanging and implementing projects.

EuroHealthNet is particularly involved in projects linkded to healthy ageing though its participation in the EU funded project, IROHLA - 'Intervention Research On Health Literacy among Ageing population' and though its support to the AFE-INNOVNET network.

The AFE-INNOVNET network"s overarching goal is to set up a large EU wide community of local and regional authorities and other relevant stakeholders across the EU who want to work together to find smart and innovative evidence based solutions to support active and healthy ageing and develop age-friendly environments across the EU.

Creating age-friendly environments is one of the most effective approaches to respond to demographic change. AFE-INNOVNET aims at mobilising a EU-wide community of local and regional authorities and other stakeholders to support the scaling-up of innovative solutions for age-friendly environments to support active and healthy ageing across Europe.

A strong collaboration exists with WHO thanks to the involvement of WHO-Europe in an advisory capacity into AFE-INNOVNET. In addition to that the technical proposal 'Age-Friendly Environments in Europe' conducted by WHO-Europe with the funding support of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion is very complementary to the work to be developed by AFE-INNOVNET consortium.

AFE INNOVNET

The AFE-INNOVNET network’s overarching goal was to set up a large EU wide community of local and regional authorities and other relevant stakeholders who wanted to work together to find smart and innovative evidence based solutions to support active and healthy ageing and develop age-friendly environments. Creating age-friendly environments is one of the most effective approaches to respond to demographic change. AFE-INNOVNET aimed to mobilise an EU-wide community of local and regional authorities and other stakeholders to support the scaling-up of innovative solutions for age-friendly environments to support active and healthy ageing across Europe.

The AFE-INNOVNET consortium organised a high-level political event at the Committee of the Region in Brussels on 7th December 2015. It was the official launch of the Covenant on Demographic Change, which builds on the outcomes of the AFE-INNOVNET Thematic Network by merging with other networks and organizations to work towards their objectives together.

On 8th December 2015, the AFE-INNOVNET Consortium organised together with WHO Europe and the European Commission a whole day during which there was several workshops for 12-15 participants in order to discuss/test the different tools developed within the framework of AFE INNOVNET and the WHO Europe’s project AFEE. These workshops mainly targeted cities and regions, but were also be open to additional participants.

A strong collaboration existed with WHO during the course of the Thematic Network thanks to the involvement of WHO-Europe in an advisory capacity into AFE-INNOVNET. In addition, the technical proposal “Age-Friendly Environments in Europe” conducted by WHO-Europe with the funding support of DG EMPL was complementary to the work to be developed by AFE-INNOVNET consortium, further cementing the collaboration between the two bodies. WHO and its many affiliates are now part of the Covenant on Demographic Change, continuing the collaboration from one era of this project to the next.

EuroHealthNet was involved in the EU funded project, IROHLA - “Intervention Research On Health Literacy among Ageing populations” (2012-2015) which focused on improving health literacy for older people in Europe.

The project aimed to take stock of on-going health literacy initiatives. It made use of knowledge and experience of programmes in other sectors such as the private and social sectors applicable to the health sector. The project identified, validated and presented a set of 20 interventions, which together constitute a comprehensive approach for addressing health literacy needs of the ageing population in Europe.

These interventions were part of an evidence-based guideline for policy and practice for local, regional and national government authorities to start action. The project involved representatives of the ageing population, academia, all levels of governments, the business community and other stakeholders to ensure that the selected interventions were feasible, useful and effective.

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